To accompany Going to the Match by L.S. Lowry, Bury Art Museum are curating an exhibition focusing on Football Fans from the North West. The museum is collaborating with The British Culture Archive, which is loaning photos by Sheffield photographer Pete Hill, who took images of the Man United FA Cup Semi-Final against Leeds at Hillsborough in 1977.
In 2019, Jacqui McAssey, Zoe Hitchen and Madeleine Penfold took photographic portraits of Bury’s female fans that went on to appear in issue #7 of Girlfans, a fanzine created by McAssey in 2013, these will also be on display. Debs Parr will be showing her Bolton Fems portraits, and Debs was also specially commissioned to take photos of Bury fans in early 2024 for this exhibition. There will be contributions from members of the Bury Cine Society, Bury Photography Society, and local poet Chris Bainbridge.
Also on display will be Bury Football Club memorabilia given to the Museum over the years by Bury FC fans. LS Lowry’s masterpiece Going to the Match has left its home at The Lowry, Salford and begun a year-long tour of five North West venues. The tour started in December 2023 at Gallery Oldham, where the painting was on display until 24th February 2024. LS Lowry’s painting will then tour to The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead, the National Football Museum, Manchester and finally, Bury Art Museum.
Following a high-profile campaign, Going to the Match was purchased at a record £7.8 million by The Lowry in Salford for The Lowry Collection at the Modern British & Irish Art Sale at Christie’s in London in October 2022, thanks to the generous support of The Law Family Charitable Foundation. Going to the Match came home and was returned to public display at The Lowry in November 2022, and now The Lowry is delighted to be working with venues across the North West to ensure that audiences across the region can enjoy the piece. Supported by a £95,000 grant from Arts Council England through its National Lottery Project Grants programme and additional support from The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, the tour will mean this iconic painting can be enjoyed by the widest possible audience.
October 4th, 2024 – 1st March, 2025.
Please check Bury Art Museum website for opening times.
LS Lowry’s masterpiece Going to the Match is going on public display in Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre from 4th October 2024 to 1st March 2025 as part of a wider exhibition which explores football fans from the North West. The 1953 painting shows fans arriving for a Bolton Wanderers game at their former home, Burnden Park. This hugely important and much-loved work of art has been on public display
at The Lowry since it opened in 2000. The Lowry is now working with galleries across the North West to ensure that the widest possible audience and communities can enjoy the piece.
